23rd Annual Meeting (2008)

This year’s plenary will be given by Rashid Khalidi [bio], Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University.

The keynote address will be delivered by Donald Quataert [bio], Professor at SUNY, Binghamton.

FRIDAY, MAY 9

10 – 11:45 AM: Session I Panels

Islamic Aesthetics

Ida Noyes West (Chair: Professor Tahera Qutbuddin, btq@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago)

– Murat Inan, umutinan@u.washington.edu, University of Washington, Seattle “Analyzing the Ghazals of Hafiz and Fuzuli: A Comparative Approach to ‘Unity’”

– Gül Kale, gul.kale@mail.mcgill.ca, McGill University “Intellectual world of an Ottoman Architect; Surpassing Formal Analysis in Ottoman Architectural History”

– Matt Saba, mdsaba@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago “Depicting Sound: The Aesthetics of Music Performance and Manuscript Painting in Islamic Spain”

Mapping Urban Locales

(Chair: Elena D. Corbett, ecorbett@usna.edu, U.S. Naval Academy)

– Huma Gupta, humagupta@gmail.com, University of Cincinnati “The Place of Slums in Utopia: Constantinos A. Doxiadis and Urban Planning in 1950s Baghdad”

– Naima Brown, nsbrown@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago “Prominence and Permanence; Competing Narratives in Guided Tours of Jerusalem”

– Mohamed Elshahed, mke221@nyu.edu, New York University “Cairo and the question of urban duality in Literature”

Islamic Modernities and Reform

(Chair: Professor Hussein Agrama, hagrama@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago):

– Junaid Quadri, junaid.quadri@gmail.com, McGill University “Two Muftis of Egypt: Thinking about Reformism and Traditionalism”

– Sharif Islam, mislam@uiuc.edu, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign “A reassessment of Islamic Modernism: Comparing and Contrasting the Salafi and Sufi critique”

– Nurullah Ardic, ardicnur@ucla.edu, University of California, Los Angeles “Islamic Discourse, Secular Reform: Abolition of the Caliphate”

1 – 2: 45 PM: Session II Panels

Reconceptualizing Safavid Iran

(Chair: Professor Paul Losensky, plosensk@indiana.edu, Indiana University, Bloomington)

– Derek W. Davison, davisond@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago “A Qizilbash Perspective on Safavid History: Examining Tārīkh-i Qizilbāshān”

– Ferenc Csirkes, fcsirkes@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago “Preliminary Notes on the Status of Turkish Literature in Safawid Iran”

– Derek J. Mancini-Lander, mancland@umich.edu, University of Michigan “Teaching Humility, Learning Authority: Knowledge Transmission and Ritual Practice in the Safavî World”

Religion and Modern Turkey

(Chair: Professor Elizabeth Frierson, frierseb@email.uc.edu, University of Cincinnati)

– Jeremy Walton, jeremy@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago “A Limited Public: Theorizing Turkey’s Risale-i Nur Classes”

– Kabir Tambar, kabir@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago “Secular Crowds and Populist Politics in Turkey”

– Ayshe Polat, apolat@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago “The Dilemmas of the Presidency of Religious Affairs in Turkey”

Muslim Diasporas

(Chair: Professor Brian Edwards, bedwards@northwestern.edu, Northwestern University):

– Professor Serife Genis, serifegenis@yahoo.com, University of Gaziantep “Albanian Diaspora in Turkey: History, Community, Identity”

– Professor Petra Kuppinger, petra@monm.edu, Monmouth College “Himmelstochter or Negotiating German Islam”

3 – 4:45 PM: Session III Panels

Islamic Political Thought: Rhetoric & Counsel

(Chair: Professor Wadad Kadi, w-kadi@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago):

– Professor Vanessa De Gifis, vjmathia@uchicago.edu, Wayne State University “Qur’anic Rhetoric during the Abbasid Civil War”

– Jennifer A. London, jlondon@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago “Medieval Wisdom Literature and ‘the Circle of Justice’”

– Joel Blecher, jblecher@princeton.edu, Princeton University “Approaching the Rhetoric of Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhāb”

Islam, Secularism and Capitalism

(Chair: Professor Ali Fatemi, afatemi@depaul.edu, DePaul University)

– Professors Mohammed Akacem, akacemm@mscd.edu, Metropolitan State College of Denver, and Kada Akacem, akacemkada@hotmail.com, University of Algiers “Islamism and Secularism: The Case of Algeria”

– Professor Dennis D. Miller, dmiller@bw.edu, Baldwin-Wallace College “Lacking Evidence of Islamic Constraints to Egypt’s Economic Development”

– Professor Emin Baki Adas, eminadas@gmail.com, University of Gaziantep “Production of Trust and Distrust: Islamic Entrepreneurs, Transnational Networks and the State in Turkey”

Literature, Film and National Experience

(Chair: Dr. Farouk Mustafa, f-mustafa@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago):

– Sevinc Turkkan, turkkan@uiuc.edu, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign “From Text to Translation to Interpretation: Orhan Pamuk’s Novels and their “Afterlife” in English, German, and Film”

– Sinan Yildirmaz, sinanyildirmaz@gmail.com, Istanbul University “The Making of “Village Literature” in Turkey”

– Narges Bajoghli, narges@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago “The Outcasts in the Islamic Republic of Iran: Reforming the Internal “Other” by Returning to the Ideals of the Revolution”

5 – 6:30 PM: Plenary Address – Rashid Khalidi

Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies, Columbia University “The Cold War in the Middle East”

SATURDAY, MAY 10

10 – 11:45 AM: Session I Panels

Reconsidering Traditional Muslim Histories

(Chair: Professor John Woods, j-woods@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago):

– Shiraz Hajiani, hajiani@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago “Enemies of the State: Constructions of the Ismā`īlīs in the Siyāsat-nāma of Niẓām al-Mulk”

– Dr. Maher Y. Abu-Munshar, m.abumunshar@almi.abdn.ac.uk, University of Aberdeen “Fatimids, Crusaders and the Fall of Islamicjerusalem: Foes or Allies?”

– Scott Savran, sosavran@wisc.edu, University of Wisconsin, Madison “Early Muslim Historiography on the al-Qadisiyya Embassies: A Case Study in Shu‘ubiyya Polemics”

Challenges to the Turkish Nation-State

(Chair: Professor Holly Shissler, ashissle@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago)

– Professor Tamer Balci, tbalci@utpa.edu, University of Texas-Pan American “The Historical Philosophy of the Turkish-Islamic Synthesis”

– Professor Hakan Ozoglu, aozoglu@mail.ucf.edu, University of Central Florida “Exaggerating and Exploiting the Sheik Said Rebellion of 1925 for Political Gains”

– Metin Yuksel, metin@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago “A ‘Communist Mullah’ from Turkey: M. Emin Bozarslan and his Intellectual Evolution”

Anthropological Perspectives on Gender and Politics

(Chair: Dr. Carolyn Goffman, cgoffman@depaul.edu, DePaul University)

– Kelda Jamison, keldaj@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago “‘Honor’, ‘violence’, and the circulating boundaries of cultural specificity: dilemmas of a feminist and Kurdish political project”

– Hikmet Kocamaner, hikmet@email.arizona.edu, University of Arizona “Conversations Across the Bosphorus: The Poetics and Politics of Depicting Other Women”

– Rania K. Sweis, rsweis@stanford.edu, Stanford University “Wavering Between Victim and Perpetrator: Reflections on Neoliberalism and the Gendered Politics of Youth in Contemporary Egypt”

1 – 2: 45 PM: Session II Panels

History and Archeology: Reading the Past through Ceramics

(Chair: Choukri Heddouchi, choukri@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago)

– Robert R. Tate, rtate@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago “The Seljuks at Gordion: Ceramics of Central Anatolia in the Middle Islamic Period”

– Dr. Katherine Strange Burke, ksburke@ucla.edu, University of California, Los Angeles “The Port of Jaffa in the Early Islamic and Crusader Periods: Preliminary Observations”

– Laura M. Holzweg, lmholzweg@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago “What the Middle and Late Islamic Ceramics of Tell Hesban and Northern Jordan can contribute to the Economic History of Jordan“

Competing Identities in Israel and Palestine

(Chair: Professor Hale Yilmaz, yilmaz@siu.edu, Southern Illinois University)

– Amal Eqeiq, aeqeiq@u.washington.edu, University of Washington “Ask your Father! : New Palestinian Cinema in Israel”

– Alain Epp Weaver, eppweaver@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago ““The Cross and the Crescent Are the Marks on My Hands”: Mapping the Nation and the Performance of Palestinian Christian Identity”

– Sara Yael Hirschhorn, sarayael@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago “Kach (Thus) He Was Elected: An Analysis Of Social Support For Rabbi Meir Kahane’s Kach Party And The 11th Israeli Knesset Elections Of 1984”

Imperialism & the Middle East in the Long 19th Century

(Chair: Professor Donald Quataert, dquataer@binghamton.edu, State University of New

York, Binghamton)

– Frank Castiglione, castigfr@mcmaster.ca, McMaster University “Scholar of the Ottoman Empire: Deciphering Images of the ‘Other’ in The Memoirs of Sir Edwin Pears”

– Professor Halil Erdemir, uygula@yahoo.com, Celal Bayar University “Egypt in the Imperialist Powers’ Mediterranean Policies towards the End of the Nineteenth Century”

– Naci Yorulmaz, naciyorulmaz@hotmail.com, University of Birmingham “German Style of Penetration: War Business in the Ottoman Market (1871-1908)”

3 – 4:45 PM: Session III Panels

Ottoman Peripheries: Empire and Minorities

(Chair: Professor Cornell Fleisher, c-fleischer@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago):

– Stefania Costache, scostac2@uiuc.edu, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign “Konstantinos Dapontes’ worlds (1713/1714-1784) – A Phanariot secretary’s stories of travel and office in the Ottoman lands”

– Huseyin Alptekin, halptekin@gmail.com, University of Utah “‘Diversity in Unity’ in the Ottoman Empire: An examination of the Ottoman millet system in Cyprus through the prism of contemporary liberal multiculturalism”

– Muhsin Soyudogan, muhsin@bilkent.edu.tr, Bilkent University “Your Money or My Freedom: A Discussion on Tribal Banditry around Ayntab Region of Ottoman Empire”

Sectarianism in the Modern Middle East

(Chair: Professor Ellen Amster, eamster@uwm.edu, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee):

– Chris Anzalone, canzalon@indiana.edu, Indiana University, Bloomington “In the Name of the Imam: The Shi‘i ‘Ulama, Nationalism, and the State in the Contemporary Middle East”

– Helena Kaler, hjkaler@gwu.edu, George Washington University “Defining ‘Sectarianism’ in the Modern Middle East”

– Stephen Bowden, sbowden@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago “Trends in Hizb Allah’s Use of Terrorism”

Palestine, Migration & Community Formation

– Roy S. Fischel, fischel@uchicago.edu, University of Chicago “Abdülhamid II and Palestine: Private Lands and Imperial Policy”

– Yeliz Baloglu, ybaloglu@brandeis.edu, Brandeis University “Reliving the 1492 experience? The case of Jewish Immigration into the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th and early 20th century”

5 – 6:30 PM: Keynote Address – Donald Quataert

Library Professor of History, SUNY, Binghamton “History from Below in Ottoman and Middle Eastern Studies: a Call for Volunteers”

6:30 – 9 PM: MESSA Lamb Roast Dinner

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